This project is implemented through the CENTRAL EUROPE
Programme co-ﬁnanced by the ERDF.

Expected outcome and impact
Public subsidies in the Central European region are often
used to implement energy eﬃciency measures without
considering the possibility of private co-ﬁnancing by third
parties through the Energy Performance Contracting (EPC)
mechanism. This is due to a number of barriers on both the
side of the subsidy programmes’ structure and on the side
of subsidy receivers and Energy Service Companies (ESCO).
As a result, a given limited amount of public funding leads
to a signiﬁcantly lower number of energy eﬃciency actions
in comparison to the potential of co-ﬁnancing through EPC.
As the EPC is usually suitable for ﬁnancing of energy
eﬃciency measures with short or medium payback
additional ﬁnancing from subsidy programmes is needed to
implement measures with longer payback.

Idea and goals
The fundamental idea behind the project is to maximize
energy¸ savings through eﬀectively deﬁning and
interconnecting activities of public subsidy programmes
with the implementation of energy services.
The goal is to prepare both general as well as speciﬁc
recommendations for the provision of subsidy resources
and concurrently opening the market of energy services in
a manner which will enable the highest possible energy
savings by lowering the public expenditures.
CombinES will strengthen regional as well as trans-national
cooperation of key players along the energy eﬃciency
value chain with a long-term impact of better safeguarding
EU natural resources and contributing to sustainability
strategies.

Key activities and objectives
→ Overview of the economic market potential of the EPC
projects within the Central European region.
→ Overview of the existing programmes oﬀering subsidies
for energy eﬃciency projects within the Central
European region and energy eﬃciency projects ﬁnanced
with combination of subsidies and EPC mechanism.
→ Proposal of amendments to the existing subsidy
programmes, legislation and energy performance
contracting (EPC) business models to allow for combining
subsidies with the EPC to foster a more eﬀective
ﬁnancing of energy eﬃciency projects.
→ Design of a new model of subsidy programmes to
co-ﬁnance EPC projects. The proposed model will be
speciﬁcally tailored to the countries of CE with a potential
for transfer and application also in other EU countries.

The project will contribute to speciﬁcation of the strategic
goals on the EU level and, more importantly, to an innovative
design of speciﬁc programmes on the national levels to allow
for large and eﬃcient realisation of the energy eﬃciency
potential utilising the combination of private ﬁnancing
through EPC method and public ﬁnancing through subsidy
programmes.
CombinES will support international cooperation in search of
common solutions for funding of energy projects and for
development of EU legal and subsidy environment with
beneﬁts to all EU members.
Increasing ﬁnancing possibilities for energy eﬃciency will
bring large energy savings and reduced operational costs,
support economic eﬃciency, competitiveness and overall
productivity of the producers, as well as create
environmental beneﬁts through reduction of pollutant
emissions, and enable redirection of public budget savings to
support social development.
CombinES will provide recommendations to the EU New
architecture for the future programming period of structural
and cohesion funds for the years 2014 to 2020. It will also
contribute to solutions within four of the seven key priority
challenges of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy
based on the Gothenburg goals: climate change and clean
energy, sustainable consumption and production,
conservation and management of natural resources and
public health, and to all three pillars of the Lisbon Strategy.

→ Private investors � ESCOs, providers of EPC projects.
→ Decision makers on the EU, national and regional level,
who have inﬂuence on the design of subsidy schemes,
legislative and organisational rules.
→ Energy Utilities.